Jennie Garth and Luke Perry hid in zoo cage to escape fans

Jennie Garth and Luke Perry were put into a zoo cage to escape fans.

The 49-year-old actress recalled how she and her late ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ co-star – who died in 2019 after suffering a stroke – clambered into an animal enclosure in a bid to avoid attention when they were visiting a zoo in California, on Earth Day in 1991, and she admitted their unusual surroundings felt appropriate to the situation.

Speaking on the ‘People in the ’90s’ podcast, Jennie said: “I can remember one of the pivotal moments for me was I was on an appearance with Luke. They had sent us, I think it was Fresno, to do an appearance at a zoo, and it sort of summed it up for me because I felt like a zoo animal, in the zoo, and I was in a zoo.

“It was just weird. And then it got too crazy, and people were rushing the zoo cages. And we had to go out through one of the enclosures of the animals – I don’t remember, the monkeys or something – but I just remember them actually putting us in a cage at the zoo. And I was like, ‘This feels good.’ ”

Jennie and her friend and co-star also opened up about the first time they felt famous because of the show.

For Tori – who played Donna Martin – it was hearing fans screaming out her character’s name when she was on an escalator in a shopping mall, and for Jennie it was when Mattel issued replica dolls of the cast.

She said: “That was like, for me, a big like, ‘What is happening?’ moment.”

But the two actresses felt they got off lightly compared to their male co-stars, Luke, Jason Priestly, Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering.

Tori said: “I guess when everyone started fanning out over us, mostly we remember the boys, they would go crazy for the boys.

“And we were like, ‘They’re dreamy, but we are with them every day.’ So it was very different to see how girls would freak out.”